Four NIH funded research projects could greatly benefit from the availability of the requested shared new state of the art instrument: Nicolet Continuum FTIR microscope: 1) NIH grant AR-051446: "Bone Formation Studies by Magnetic Resonance Microscopy" Principal Investigator: Dr. Kimberlee Potter (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology). 2) NIH grant DE-13169: "Amorphous Calcium Phosphate Dental Materials", Principal Investigator: Dr. Drago Skrtic (Paffenbarger Research Center). 3) NIH grant DE-11789: "Calcium Phosphate Bone Graft Materials", Principal Investigator: Dr. Larry Chow (Paffenbarger Research Center). 4) NIH grant DE-5129: "Improvement of Preventive and Restorative Materials", Principal Investigator: Dr. Rafael Bowen (Paffenbarger Research Center). The current FTIR microspectroscopy system: "NicPlan IR microscope interfaced with Nicolet Magna-IR 550 FTIR spectrophotometer" was retired by Thermo Electron Corporation on 12/31/05 and is out of date. The requested state-of-the-art system: "Nicolet Continuum FTIR microscope with a new Nicolet 6700 Gold Multi- Range Mid-IR/Near-IR spectrophotometer" and additional accessories manufactured by Thermo Electron Corporation will enable us to obtain FTIR maps and images with higher spatial resolution and more chemical details in shorter collection times due to the higher intensity of the IR and the new technology of the mapping stage and the special one element detector that covers larger spectral range which is very important when mapping calcium phosphates and various dental tissues, bone and dental materials. Relevance: This new shared instrument will benefit tremendously the four NIH-funded research projects mentioned above by providing more data with more crucial details and in much less time. The NIH-funded research projects cover a wide range of high impact biomedical and dental research including topics such as: calibrating the new NMR imaging technique that can non-invasively evaluate the changes that occur in skeletal tissues during skeletogenesis, fracture healing, and bone growth into orthopedic implants, in contrast to the current X-ray based techniques to follow the skeletal changes that expose healthy subjects to ionizing radiation (Potter); designing of new dental composites and formulation of a prototype orthodontic cement (Skrtic); designing of better bone graft materials for periodontal defect repair, ridge augmentation, spinal fusion, and craniofacial and orthopedic applications (Chow); and formulating new and strong adhesives for dentin and enamel bonding (Bowen). [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]